St Michaels Church Podcast
God's Loving Kindness | Mark Beard | 23.06.24
This morning's reading is from the book of Joshua, chapters 9 and 10 starting with chapter 9 verses 1 to 6, which can be found on page 223 of the Church Bibles. Joshua chapter 9 starting at verse 1. Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things, the kings in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea, as far as Lebanon, the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perazites, Hivites and Jebusites, they came together to wage war against Joshua and Israel. However, when the people of Gideon heard what Joshua done to Jericho and I, they resorted to a ruse. They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wine skins, cracked and mended. They put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and mouldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the Israelites, "We have come from a distant country. Make a treaty with us." The reading continues with verses 12 to 20. This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you, and now see how dry and mouldy it is. And these wine skins that were filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey. The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to live, to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbours living near them. So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities, Gibeon, Kefirah, Beeroth, and Kiryath Jiram, but the Israelites did not attack them. Because of the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, but all the leaders answered, "We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them. We will let them live so that God's wrath will not fall on us, for breaking the oath we swore to them." And now verses 26 to 27, "So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water-carriers for the assembly. To provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord, at the place of the Lord, would choose." And that is what they are to this day. The final passages from chapter 10, verses 5 to 15, which is on page 225 for the Church Bibles. Then the five king of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmoth, Lacus, and Eglon joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us. So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road, going up to Beth Horon, and cut them down all the way to Azica and Megatar. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azica, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Son stands still over Gibeon and you moon over the valley of Eidolon, so the sun stood still, and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the book of Joshua. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel." Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Dom, for that reading and apologies. It is a long one. Hopefully it will be worth it. I know while I'm adjusting things up here, I want you to remember that a few days ago, Thursday last 20th of June, was the longest day. The sun rose about four o'clock in the morning and didn't set again until 9.21 in the evening. Earlier this month, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day, which is celebrated in the movie The Longest Day. It's the 1962 American epic war film featuring a star-studded cast, including Hold On To Your Seats. John Wayne, Kenneth Moore, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Rod Steiger, George Seagull, Robert Wagner. If you're less than 40 years old, you probably have no clue who those people are. But they are the greats of cinema. Today we're going to continue in our series, Messages From the Heart, The Nature and the Character of God. This week, Jack spoke about the God's power and our lived experience. And today I want to explore another attribute of God's nature by looking at what is a story of undoubtedly the longest day in history, this story from Joshua. Specifically, I want to talk about God's loving kindness and our lived experience. God is faithful. We are fickle. More than that, I don't just want to talk about love. I want to talk about this particular aspect of God's character called loving kindness. It is our English translation of the Hebrew word, cheseed. But the word loving kindness is just one translation. The word cheseed is translated in 169 different ways in our English Bibles. So rich is this word. It's translated as mercy, kindness, loving kindness, goodness, kindly, merciful, favour, good, goodliness, pity. See when we read the word loving kindness or mercy in our Bibles, we should not be thinking of a sentimental love or an emotional love. The Bible project says this, cheseed combines the ideas of love, generosity and enduring commitment. The reason it's so hard to translate is because it's a covenant word. And covenant is not a concept that we in the West really understand. Rather than trying to describe the word or offer a better English translation of it, I thought I might look at the story that illustrates just what a covenant is and what cheseed loving kindness, loyal love, covenant love, what that looks like in practice. You see the Bible is a book full of covenants. And when you have a covenant, you have cheseed. If covenant were an engine, a covenant would an engine, then cheseed would be the oil that keeps the engine lubricated. Without the oil, the engine would seize up. Without cheseed, a covenant simply would not work out. In our passage today, we're going to see the making of a covenant between Joshua and the Gibeonites, and what we're going to see is just how surprisingly cheseed or loving kindness plays out in this story. Okay, it was a long reading, so let me just summarize it. The background is that the Israelites led by Joshua have begun to conquer the promised land. The first city they conquer is Jericho. We all know that story. The next one is AI, and by now the other cities in the region are beginning to get worried. The people of Gibeon, particularly, which has just wrought the road from Gilgal, they are really worried and they decide to trick the Israelites into making a peace treaty with them. Pretending they're coming from a long way away, they wear worn out clothes, they carry stale bread, and they go down the road to head off Joshua and the Israelites before they get to Gibeon. And it works. Joshua is fooled into thinking that Gibeon is a long way off, and so he makes a peace treaty with them. When the other cities in the region hear about this, five of them band together, and they attack Gibeon. The Gibeonites call for help, and the Israelites are now bound by that treaty to come and help them. The battle is a rout, but not only that, God gets involved. He reigns down hailstones to kill the enemy, and in what must be one of the most incredible stories in the Bible, he makes the sun stop still in the sky so that the mopping-up exercise can continue for more than 24 hours. Wow, I mean, wow! How does this make sense, though? Why would the Israelites and God for that matter honor this treaty which they've been tricked into making? Well, it was more than just a treaty. Verse 15 says, "The leaders of the assembly ratified the treaty by an oath." A treaty ratified by an oath is much more than a contract. It's much more than a simple treaty. It is a covenant. And a covenant is not like a treaty or a contract where one party promises to do something to the other party so long as they keep their side of the bargain as well. No, a covenant in ancient times meant promising chassede or loving-kindness to the other party, whatever. Further, verse 18 clarifies that they had sworn an oath by the Lord, the God of Israel. Not just any old covenant oath, but an oath by the Lord, the God of Israel. What we're going to see is that God keeps his promise of covenant love for us, whatever. Specifically, God's chassede or loving-kindness is sure even when we mess up. God's chassede or loving-kindness is sure even when even if we are far off. First of all, when we mess up. Okay, so God was involved in this treaty, in this covenant, with the Gibeonites. Well, not exactly. The Israelites just invokes the name of the Lord God in the oath. Verse 14 says, "They did not inquire of the Lord." Now they should have known better than this because you see, back in chapter 7, flush with success after capturing Jericho, they moved on to attack AI without consulting God. And the first time of that was a disaster. The result was a disaster. The second time they did consult God and it worked out better. Now you would think they would learn from that lesson, wouldn't you? But no, no. Some of us never learn. I tried to post something to my daughter in the US the other day and rather than consult my wife who knows a lot about couriers, in my rush to get the thing posted, I just wandered to the nearest post office and paid top dollar for their premium courier service, imagining that the next day a shiny, something like a shiny FedEx van is going to pull up outside my daughter's apartment in New York and deliver the package. Instead I find out, eight days later, that my urgent and important documents are sitting in the US Postal Service office and have been there for the last seven days. Believe me, putting anything in the hands of the US Postal Service is like ladies, putting your best cashmere shredder on a hot wash and a fast spin cycle. It doesn't work out. Now that's irritating. And it's a relatively trivial example of messing up, a week wasted. But we all mess up and sometimes big time, some things that will affect us for years. And we can be crippled with regret when these things happen. Sometimes it's not even a sin, it's just poor judgment, a poor decision. But this was more than just a poor decision. You see in chapter eight, just before this episode, Joshua had just read out the law to the whole nation, including this commandment in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy seven, verse one, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you the many nations, Hittites, Googershites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perazites and Hivites," that's the Gibeonites. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Now that's messing up big time. You know, I worry about practicing what I preach. But Joshua has taken this to a whole new level. And imagine the regret that Joshua announced to live with. This tribe, they were supposed to drive out, sitting right on his doorstep. And not only that, but in verse 18, the whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, against Joshua. But all the leaders answered, "We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now." That process, that obligation to fulfill the covenant promises, that is what the ancients called Haiseed, loving kindness. In other words, we have tied our hands. There is nothing we can do. Joshua will have to live with that regret. The best he is able to make of the situation is he makes them serve Israel as water carriers and woodgatherers. Small compensation. Do you have regrets more than just choosing the wrong career company? Do those thoughts cripple you? Well, I've got good news for you. God's Haiseed, his loving kindness, is sufficient to cover that regret. And as we're going to see, God is not vindictive. God will amazingly bless Joshua and the Israelites through this, and he will amazingly bless you through your messing up. Secondly, God's Haiseed, his loving kindness, is sure, even when we are far off. So what about the Gibeonites? Well what has been their part in this? The passage says, and we read, that they have been a bit sneaky. Verse 4 says, they resorted to a ruse, cheeky monkeys. But actually, you know, our translation is a bit loose here, and it hides the seriousness of their actions. Other versions translate the Hebrew more accurately. It says they were cunning and crafty. Now, where have we heard those words before? Genesis 3, verse 1, the serpent was crafty, the serpent, the satan. You see, the same word is used of the serpent in the garden, is what we're hearing here that the Gibeonites have sinned. They have committed the mother of all sins. They have tricked Joshua into sin, just as the satan did in the garden. You know, if we're going to see God's covenant love is shown even to them. Again, the Gibeonites still had to live with the consequences of their deception. They were made water carriers and wood gatherers. But because of the oath, because of the obligation to show chisid, not only have they been spared by Joshua and the Israelites, but they are now protected by that chisid, that covenant love. Far from being punished for their sin, they are protected, and they get to remain and dwell in the promised land. That is chisid, that is love in kindness. Okay, what about when we sinned, really big sins? You know, last week we had baptisms here, you were able to see that, but there was also another baptism recently on April 29th, Russell Brandt, the media personality, having declared his faith in Jesus Christ some time ago, was baptized in the Thames at Henley. Russell Brandt has been accused of rape, sexual assault, emotional abuse by at least four women, and in a joint investigation last year by Channel 4 and the Sunday Times. So Russell Brandt is still facing the consequences of his past life, but he has also found God to be his savior. And so it is that Russell Brandt says this after his baptism. The truth is, as a person that I have in the past taken many, many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and transcendence I have been looking for. Something has occurred, and in the process of baptism, that was an incredible, overwhelming experience. I felt changed, transitioned. God has ceded, his loving kindness, assured even for the mother of all sinners. I am not saying that Russell Brandt is a mother of all sinners, but you get my point, but the story does not end there. Gibbian is not the only settlement that is watching what is going on, five kings from neighboring settlements are looking on, and they, as we know, they decide to form an alliance and attack Israel by attacking Israel's new ally, the Gibbianites. Come and help us, the people of Gibbian saying, and far from driving them out, Joshua is now obligated by his seed, by loving kindness, to defend them, to rescue them. He doesn't want to, he has to. They've acted really, really badly, but he now has to show mercy to them, and that's why her seed is often translated mercy. This time, Joshua does consult the Lord, and the Lord tells him to go and fight. The result is a rout. Not only did Joshua's armies succeed in battle, but we told that the Lord joined the battle as well. Now, let's pause for a moment here and think about this. God steps in to help the Gibbianites, the hivites, that God had commanded Joshua to drive out. God steps in to help the Gibbianites who had lied and cheated, literally, were cunning like the Satan. God steps in to help the Gibbianites because Joshua invoked the name, God's name, in an oath, in a covenant that God had told Joshua not to make. God steps in to help Joshua who messed up because he did not consult with God. About any of this, even though he just learned in the previous punch-up the folly of not consulting God. God steps in to help Joshua, even though he has transgressed, God's commandment that he himself has just preached about to the assembled Israelites in the previous chapter. Why does God do this? It's outrageous. This, as Francis Chan calls it, "it's crazy love, it's hessid." You see, God was also obligated by hessid, covenant love, to keep the covenant that he has sworn in his own name. Not only that, but God performs one of the most incredible miracles in the Bible in support of these cheats and sinners. Verse 10, "The Lord threw them the attacking armies into confusion before Israel." Verse 11, "The Lord held halestones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites." Verse 13, "The Lord stopped the sun in the middle of the sky and delayed its going down for about a full day." Verse 14, "There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being." Have you, Christian, messed up, royally? Are you living with the consequences of error and sin? Joshua had to, but God's hessid was there for him, and he had to live with the Gibeonites on his doorstep, but God also fought the battle for Israel that day. And Joshua defeated five, five cities, five kings in that one incredible day. New Corinthians 7, verse 10 says this, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but wordly sorrow or remorse brings death." We need to stop living in our regrets and our remorse and start living out our salvation. The new covenant, here's a bit of it, "You are the peace in my troubled sea. If God is for us, who can stand against us? Let your light shine, let your light shine, let your light shine." Romans 8, 28. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. All things. He goes on, Paul goes on to say, "Nothing can separate us from the hessid, God's loving kindness." Now, what about you who have never called on Jesus as Lord? Is this the greatest miracle in the Bible? No. No, we're told that the death and the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle in the Bible. We're also told that there is a new covenant in the blood of Jesus. Now what does that mean? A new covenant in his blood. Well, when a covenant was made, it was sealed by an oath, but also by sacrifices. So in ancient times, they would take animals and they would cut them down the middle and they would lay one half to one side, one half to another side. And then both of the parties to the covenant would walk through these dead animals in a figurative figure of eight pattern. And as they did so, of course, what would happen is they would literally be walking in the blood of those sacrifices. And sometimes we call these blood covenants for that reason. But we are told that there is a new covenant in his blood. You see, the covenant that has been made for us could only be sealed, could only be valid by a sacrifice. And Jesus made that sacrifice for us when he died on the cross. Romans 5, 8 says this, "But God demonstrates his own love for us, his receipt. In this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Have you cheated, lied, and sinned? Have you committed even the mother of all sins? God's loving kindness is chesed, is covenant love. It's there for you. This new covenant written in the blood of Jesus, he calls us to repent and believe. Romans 2, verse 4 says this, "Do you not realize it is God's kindness? God has cede his loving kindness that leads you to repentance." Act 16, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you, you, like those give your nights, you will be saved." Let's pray. Lord, we are about to celebrate your death and rising again when we celebrate Holy Communion. And in that Lord, we signify your death and rising. When we speak about the new covenant, the cup of the new covenant that is your blood shed for us, the sacrifice of your body that died for us. Lord help us to live, live out the good of this new covenant, putting behind us regrets and remorse; Lord help us to let our light shine, let our light shine, let our light shine. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]